CMAAs one of the biggest stars on the planet with some of the most devoted fans in music, Taylor Swift is used to hearing people rave about how amazing she is. But she says that when it comes to writing songs, she prefers to surround herself with folks who'll tell her that she's just not good enough. It's not that Taylor loves abuse. She just feels that banishing "yes men" from the creative process results in better music.

"My favorite people to work with are the bluntest,” Taylor tells Variety. "The ones who will say no. It’s important to have someone say, ‘That’s not good enough, go write a better pre-chorus,’ so I can go back to the drawing board."

Variety reports that for her new album, the follow-up to Red, Taylor is working once again with hit-making producers Max Martin and Shellback, with whom she co-wrote "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," "I Knew You Were Trouble," and "22." "I don’t want people thinking if they’re too hard they won’t get to write with me again, when in fact it’s the contrary," she explains.

This weekend, Taylor's up for a Golden Globe Award for "Sweeter than Fiction," the song she co-wrote with fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff for the movie One Chance. She tells Variety that she immediately related to the movie's story, about a real-life amateur opera singer named Paul Potts who went on to win Britain's Got Talent and become a star.

“He’s a struggling opera singer, and no one gets it,” she says. “Which I related to a little bit growing up [in Pennsylvania] being so obsessed with country music -- in my school, everyone was a little bit perplexed.”